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Jeff Roberson / AP
Barr went to the White House on Monday (local time), where Trump said he presented his letter of resignation.
US Attorney General William Barr, one of President Donald Trump’s staunch allies, resigns amid lingering tension with the president over the president’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud and the investigation into the president-elect’s son Joe Biden.
Barr went to the White House on Monday (local time), where Trump said the attorney general presented his letter of resignation.
“According to the letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family,” Trump tweeted.
Trump has publicly expressed his anger at Barr’s statement to The Associated Press earlier this month that the Justice Department had not found any widespread election fraud that would change the outcome of the election.
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Trump has also been angry that the Justice Department did not publicly announce that it was investigating Hunter Biden before the election, despite the department’s policy against such a pronouncement.
Barr in his resignation letter said he updated Trump on Monday on the “review of allegations of voter fraud in the department’s 2020 election and how the allegations will continue.”
He added that his last day of work would be December 23.
Trump said Assistant Attorney General Jeff Rosen, whom he called “a remarkable person,” will become Acting Attorney General.
Trump spent much of the day observing the Electoral College tally and calling allies, but broke away to meet with Barr.
His tweet about Barr’s departure was an unusually candid response from a president who is notoriously cold to his departing staff and quick to insult and mock them once they say they are leaving. The president has previously claimed that he fired employees who resigned to appear more powerful.
Despite Trump’s obvious disdain for those who publicly disagree with him, Barr has generally remained in the good disposition of the president and has been one of the president’s most ardent allies.
Before the election, he had repeatedly raised the idea that voting by mail could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic, as Americans feared going to the polls.
But Trump has little tolerance for criticism, especially public criticism, from his allies, and he often responds in kind.
Barr, who was serving in his second term as attorney general, tried to present himself as an independent leader who would not give in to political pressure. But Democrats have repeatedly accused Barr of acting more like the president’s personal attorney than the attorney general, and Barr proved to be a trusted ally of Trump and an advocate of presidential power.
Before releasing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s full report on the Russia investigation last year, Barr framed the results in a Trump-friendly way, although Mueller deliberately said he could not exonerate the president of obstruction of justice.
He also appointed as special counsel the US attorney who is conducting a criminal investigation into the origins of the FBI investigation of the 2016 elections that became the Mueller investigation into possible cooperation between Trump and Russia, after repeated Trump calls to “investigate investigators.”
Barr also ordered Justice Department prosecutors to review the handling of the federal investigation into Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and then tried to dismiss criminal charges against Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying. to the FBI. Trump later pardoned Flynn.
Barr’s break with Trump over voter fraud was not the first. Earlier this year, Barr told ABC News that the president’s tweets about the Justice Department cases “make it impossible for me to do my job” and tensions flared just a few months ago as the two increasingly disagreed on the Durham research pace.
Trump had been increasingly critical of the lack of arrests, and Barr was privately telling people that he was frustrated by Trump’s public pronouncements on the case.
It was also said that Trump blamed Barr for FBI Director Chris Wray’s comments on voter fraud and vote-by-mail that were at odds with the president’s alarmist rhetoric.
Trump said Assistant Attorney General Jeff Rosen, whom he called “a remarkable person,” will become Acting Attorney General.
